Standing Inca
Artist
George de Forest Brush
(American, 1854 - 1941)
Dateca. 1887
MediumOil on panel
DimensionsUnframed: 10 3/4 x 8 inches (27.31 x 20.32 cm)
Framed: 18 3/4 x 16 x 2 1/2 inches (47.63 x 40.64 x 6.35 cm)
Framed: 18 3/4 x 16 x 2 1/2 inches (47.63 x 40.64 x 6.35 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. R. Crosby Kemper Jr. in honor of the 75th anniversary of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Object number2009.17.1
SignedSigned upper left: G. De. F. Brush
On View
On viewGallery Location
- 218
Collections
DescriptionGeorge de Forest Brush's small oil on panel painting depicts a three-quarters-length portrait of a man who has been identified by the title as an Inca. Posed against a non-descript, two-tone gray backdrop, the man rests his proper left hand on his left hip and looks over his proper right shoulder, allowing his face to be viewed in strict profile. The man wears a thin gold headband from which two large pink and gray feathers extend, a teal-colored woven poncho with a decorative gold border and a tribal figure over the chest, as well as a yellow skirt.Exhibition History
George de Forest Brush,
1855-1941: Master of the American Renaissance, Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, November 13, 1985–July
6, 1986 (traveled), no. 20.
Magnificent Gifts for the 75th, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., February 11–April 4, 2010, unnumbered.
American Indians, including pre-Columbian figures, were the primary subjects for George de Forest Brush’s art during the 1880s. When depicting indigenous people, such as this carefully described Incan man, Brush absolved himself from the rigors of ethnographic accuracy. Instead, drawing on his art training’s dedication to depicting the human body, he favored compositions that were idealized in form and romantic in tone. He claimed: “I do not paint from the historian’s or the antiquary’s point of view….Therefore, I hesitate to attempt to add any interest to my pictures by supplying historical facts. If I were required to resort to this in order to bring out the poetry, I would drop the subject at once.”
(Kennedy Galleries, New York, by 1978, but remained with them
no later than 1983);
(Berry-Hill Galleries, New York);
to (Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 1985);
to Mr. and Mrs. Crosby R. Kemper Jr., Kansas City, MO, 1987;
to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., April 2009.
"Art of the American West," The Kennedy Quarterly 16, no. 2 (June 1978): 103.
Joan B. Morgan, "The Indian Paintings of George de Forest Brush," American Art Journal 15 (Spring 1983): 72.
George de Forest Brush, 1855-1941: Master of the American Renaissance (New York: Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., 1985), 70.
Nancy K. Anderson et al., George de Forest Brush: The Indian Paintings (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2008), 203.
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